Physics of Glaciers (HS 2018)

Here is all the course material for the "Physics of Glaciers" class.

• Class schedule and recommended books

Script

• Chapters 1 - 3 (Overview, Ice Sheets, Mass Balance)
• Chapter 4 -5 (Stress and Strain, Glacier Flow)
• Chapter 6(Temperature and Heat Flow)
• Slides: Temperature and Heat Flow
• Chapter 7 (Basal Motion)
• Chapter 8 (Glacier Hydraulics)
• Slides: Glacier Hydraulics

Appendices

• Appendix A (List of symbols)
• Appendix B (Useful quantities)
• Appendix C (Vectors and tensors)

Homework Exercises

• Homework 1 (Mass balance and Glacier Geometry)
• Homework 2 (Mass Balance, Reaction Time Scales and Glacier Thickness Estimation)
• Homework 3 (Stress, strain)
• Homework 4 (Glacial flow)
• Homework 5 (Glacial flow)
• Homework 6 (Heat Flow and Temperature)
• Homework 7 (Heat Flow and Temperature)
• Borehole data
• Homework 8 (Glacier hydraulics I)
• Homework 9 (Glacier hydraulics II)

Slides

• Lecture 1 Slides (Introduction, Mass balance and Glacier Geometry, Dynamic Mass Loss)
• Lecture 2 Slides (Mass Balance, Reaction Time Scales and Depth Estimation, Glacier Thickness Estimation)

Links

• A very nice glaciology page
• Swiss Glacier Monitoring Service
• Inventary of potentially dangerous glaciers in the Swiss Alps
• Deformation of ice crystals (cool movies)